British Expatriate Network

DOMESTIC DOMINANCE NOW ALMOST TAKEN FOR GRANTED .. I like that -)


Chelsea will be even better warns Mourinho

AFP
July 19, 2006

LONDON (AFP) - Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has insisted his summer signings will make the English champions even stronger this season.

Mourinho has led Chelsea to consecutive Premiership titles and, with domestic dominance now almost taken for granted, he is determined to extend that success into the Champions League.

He landed AC Milan's prolific striker Andriy Shevchenko for a club-record 30 million pounds and also lured Germany's World Cup captain Michael Ballack to Stamford Bridge from Bayern Munich.


Both signings were made with the aim of winning Chelsea a first European Cup, but Mourinho has also focused on the future and, to that end, he signed 20-year-old striker Salomon Kalou from Feyenoord and teenage Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel from Lyn Oslo.

Mourinho said "We are a team of champions and as champions we have high expectations at the start of every season.

"We triumphed for the second time in the Premiership last season but we must keep moving on to the next level in everything we do.

"I have high hopes for the new season with two Premiership titles already ours.

"Including the FA Community Shield, we are playing for five trophies and we will always play to win every game.

"It isn't going to be easy, especially as the other teams will be chasing us.

"We've made some really top signings for next season, champions like Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko. They have great status which they will bring to our team of champions.

"But we also have young boys like Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel, players with big potential."

Mourinho is also keen to bring in a left-back to replace Asier Del Horno, who is expected to move back to Spain just a season after arriving from Athletic Bilbao.

Arsenal's Ashley Cole and Juventus star Gianluca Zambrotta are both high on his wanted list.

Updated on Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006 1146 am EDT grin

I know you typed that while sleeping cos you are dreaming !!!!! LOL

Liverpool will win everything.

clean our trophys for us maybe . :grin:

Will someone tell Mourinho there's only 11 players on a team? He won't be happy until he's got players like Ballack, Cech, etc on the bench or not even dressed.

The more stars you have...The less team you have. "I, I, I" instead of "We, We, We"

The more great players they have the less great players everyone else has. That's the key. If other teams can only pick Robbie Savage then of course Celsea will win again.

I think Chelsea are making a mistake signing these big names. They'll rock the boat. Look at Real Madrid. Half a "World 22" squad and they can't win the Spanish league against essentially one other competitor.

Chelsea won their first title in 50 years by signing some lesser names who blended to form a team. The second was just a slight adaptation of that team. Now? I think they're adding too many apples to the barrel, some of them may be bad.

The mighty always fall.....look at Manchester United for example.

A scattering of quality players is a must but you need the grafters too and Chelsea seem to be unbalancing this.

Denying other teams star players is one thing but when they are sat on your bench or bitching around the club about lack of playing time or not getting top-billing, it's going to hurt the team and their performances.

I think players have to decide whether they want to sit on the bench at Chelski or play. Players like Wright-Phillips and Parker have had their careers ruined by going there for the Russian blood money.

This is a quote from Morhinio about the Duff situation. I always thought there was summat wrong with that guy.

"I have an open relationship with Duff and we have talked about all possibilities."